Railway car door fixture



Oct. 25, 1949. 5. J. STONE 2,486,339

RAILWAY CAR DOOR FIXTURE I Filed Nov. 25, 1946 2 Shee'ts-Sheet 1 INVEN 6W J 6 726, BY 1 n ao.uaco ouoooofiocoanoo OOaonu Oct. 25, 1949. s. J. STONE 2,486,339

RAILWAY CAR DOOR FIXTURE 7 Filed N v. 25, 1946 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 IN V EN TOR.

Patented Oct. 25, 1949 STATES FATEZNT $486,339 I RAILWAY CAR DQQR FIXTURE Stanley J. Stone, 'Munster, Ind., assigno-r to.

Standard. Railway Equipment Manufacturing 'Q na yi Ghicagmlll, a corporation ofi:I,)ela.-.

Application November 25, 1946; Serial No. 7123184 The invention. relates-to a slidableside door for-a railway house car and. particularly to such adoor supportecl by rollers adjacent the lower margin thereofwhich roll upon a trackfixed to a car,- which track is provided with spaceddepressions ci -interrupted portions into which the rollers fall whenthe dooris in a predetermined position (such as fully open. or fully closed position) so thatthe'door engage the track and relieve the rollers of; the weight of the door. Such a structure is shown. in Gilpin Patent No. 1390231 72 of March- 21, 1933', and my fixture in an improvement thereon.

The principal object of-thetinvention is to provide-a door trachhaving parallel treads to engage certain rollers respectively which are mounted upon the door-in spaced planes parallel with the car; door said: treads. having interrupted. ortions therein adapted to receivesaid rollers and thereby allow the door to lower and rest upon the track when inclosed or-openposition, and to associate and arrange the; interrupted portions relative. to the rollers so that each roller rolls upon a; smooth tread when the door ismoved from open-to; closed position orvice versa.

A, furtherobjector the invention is to provide a.roller housing wherein a roller may be mounted ing.,e ither of; two (or more) planes parallel; to the door, and to provide roller housings which are interchangeable with each other and which may be attached to the bottom margin of the door at the corners thereof, or at any point along said margin as may be required for difierent widths of doors, and so that the rollers may be suitably spaced to suit the spacing of the tread depressions.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a side elevation of the lower portion of a railway car door and adjacent car sides showing the invention.

Figure 2 is a top plan view of the track showing the preferred arrangement of the interrupted portion of the treads.

Figure 3 is an enlarged section through the roller housing and associated parts of the car showing the roller positioned near the door to engage the inner tread of the track.

Figure 4 is a view similar to Figure 3, showing the roller positioned remote from the door to engage the outer tread of the track.

Figure 5 is a plan view of a modified track.

Figure 6 is a side view of Figure 5.

Figure '7 is a plan view illustrating one manner of maintaining a smooth tread opposite an interrupted portion Of an adjacent tread.

5 Claims. (Cl. -416) Figure 8 is. a side elevation of..Figure Z:

In. thedrawings, the-car door is. illustrated at l', the door threshold; plate at, 2; the si;desill':-at.-'v 4:, flooring. at 5. and. sidewall. at 61 1 v The rollers a; and Qiare mounted in housing l0 upon the door in spaced planes: parallel: to the door, asshowr; clearly-in Figuresfi and' i, wherein the roller. 8; is positioned; nearthe. doorv as: in Figure 3'; and theroller fiaisposition ed, relatively speaking, remote from the door; asin Figure4; Any roller maylbe changed from oneaposition: to the other position. by removing the: pin H:v and interchanging the roller and filler. I2, thusethe same housing Ill-1 may be used for a rollerin either position. This is desirable; so that; the samehousing maybe-usedi near-the front of'the door as is used near the rear of'thed'oorz" Ilhe housings ID are secured to'the door, as by-the rivets 13..

The doortrach Ht has spaced treads:I=:5and- It (even though shown-in Figure 2 ascasingle. unit). The near roller trolls upon one of said-treads l5. and the remote roller- 9- rolls: upon the-other of said treads: Iii. The portions ofrthetreadsupon which the: rollers roll aresrnooth butthe treads are provided with. interrupted portionsl 'l', M319 and- 28- into which the rollers roll: and thereby allowthe: door: l to. move downwardly. and rest upon. the track It whenz the rollers move into said interrupted portions. The interrupted portions of the treads are arranged and positioned so that the door will rest upon the track when the door is in fully closed position, as shown in Figure 1, or fully open position.

In order for the door to run smoothly from open to closed position, or vice versa, I provide an uninterrupted tread l5 for the front roller 8 and another uninterrupted tread l6 for the back roller 9. This is accomplished by having certain portions of the upper surface of the track with one tread smooth and the adjacent tread interrupted. This may be done by depressing the entire track and then filling in one tread with a filler 22, as shown in Figures 7 and 8, preferably held in place by welding material 2|.

In Figures 5 and 6 there is shown a modified track wherein a pair of members 25 and 26 are arranged so that their ends overlap and are secured together by the rivets 21, or other securing means. Thus the members 25 and 26 form treads 28 and 29 in spaced planes upon which the rollers 8 and 9, mounted in coincident spaced planes, may roll. In this modification instead of providing depressions in the track to provide the interrupted portions, the treads are terminated so 3 that the rollers roll off the ends of said treads, (see Figure 5) and thereby allow the door to lower and rest upon said track. The ends of the treads in this modification are turned downwardly, as at 30, to facilitate rolling of the rollers on and off of said treads.

The accompanying drawings illustrate the preferred form of the invention, though it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the exact details of construction shown and described, as it is obvious that various modifications thereof, within the scope of the claims, will occur to persons skilled in the art.

I claim:

1. For use in a railway carhaving a horizontal ly slidable door, the combination of spaced rollers adapted to be secured to said door in spaced planes parallel to the door, and a track having treads in spaced planes parallel to the door, one of said rollers adapted to roll upon one of said treads and the other of said rollers adapted to roll upon the other of said treads, each tread having longitudinally spaced depressions, one for receiving its respective roller in the open position of the door, and the other for receiving said roller in the closed position of said door.

2. For use in a railway car having a horizontally slidable door, the combination of spaced rollers adapted to be secured to said door in spaced planes parallel to the door, and a track having treads in spaced planes parallel to the door, one of said rollers adapted to roll upon one of said treads and the other of said rollers adapted to roll upon the other of said treads, each of said treads having longitudinally spaced depressions to relieve the respective rollers of the weight of the door when the door is in predetermined position.

3. For use in a railway car having a horizontally slidable door, the combination of spaced rollers adapted to be secured to said door in spaced planes parallel to the door, and a track having treads, said treads overlapping each other in spaced planes parallel to the door, one of said rollers adapted to roll upon one of said treads and the other of said rollers adapted to roll upon the other of said treads, each of said treads being shorter than the distance each roller travels from open to closed position of the door so as to run .4 oil the end of said tread and thereby relieve the rollers of the weight of the door when the door is in predetermined position.

4. For use in a railway car having a horizontally slidable door, the combination of spaced rollers adapted to be secured to said door in spaced planes parallel to the door and between the vertical margins of the door, and a track having overlapping treads in spaced planes parallel to the door, one of said rollers adapted to roll upon one of said treads and the other of said rollers adapted to roll upon the other of said treads, each tread being shorter than the distance its respective roller travels from the open to the closed position of the door.

5. In a railway car having a wall, a doorway in said wall, a sliding door for closing said doorway, and a pair of interchangeable roller housings secured in spaced relation upon the lower margin of said door; a roller mounted in each housing, said rollers being mounted so as to occur in spaced planes parallel to the door, a track mounted upon said car below said door, said track having treads in spaced planes coincident with the planes of said rollers, so that one roller is adapted to roll upon one of said treads and the other roller is adapted to roll upon the other of said treads, each tread having longitudinally spaced interruptions therein, the interruptions in each tread being spaced apart a distance greater than the distance between the respective rollers and so that when the door is moved from closed to opened position each roller will have moved from one interruption to the other.

STANLEY J. STONE.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,902,772 Gilpin Mar. 21, ,1933 1,918,253 Eklind et a1 July 18, 1933 1,958,749 Gilpin May 15, 1934 1,990,542 Gilpin Feb. 12, 1935 2,091,393 Madland Aug. 31, 1937 2,340,014 Nystrom Jan. 25, 1944 

